In the fields of biochemistry and molecular biology, it is often desirable to be able to prepare stable and reproducible molecular constructs that may serve as templates or reagents in analytical schemes designed to detect the presence of organic and biochemical analytes.
Living systems rely almost exclusively on supramolecular self-assembly to generate complex functional, hierarchical structures over a wide range of scales. Not surprisingly, self-assembly is increasingly being adapted as a general strategy for generating nanostructures in many fields, from physics and chemistry to biology, material science, engineering and manufacturing. A major goal of nanoscience and nanotechnology is therefore to achieve fundamental control over supramolecular self-assembly—the bottom-up organization of matter on the nano-scale. “RNA tectonics” exploits the modular character of natural RNA molecules—which can be decomposed into a large variety of RNA structural motifs—to build new nanoscopic RNA architectures that self-assemble to form nano-assemblies of desired size and shape. RNA is fully programmable and amenable to design by reverse folding.
It is desirable to be able to develop RNA as a medium for (1) exploring principles of supramolecular self-assembly and (2) achieving nano-scale molecular design and construction of complex cooperative assemblies capable of realizing diverse functions and practical applications.
There is also a need for biomolecules that can be used as stable electrophoresis markers and electron microscopy markers.
There also remains a need for RNA constructs with increased stability, and those that may be readily and reliably applied in analytical methods and devices by using conformational strategies of bind, isolate and detect target biomolecules.